Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 33 



temples of Vesta. On the abolition of these fires, about the twelfth century, and the introduction 

 of bells, the Tlachgo were in general converted into belfries, whence the modern name for a bell in 

 Irish is clogh, from being placed in the Tlachgo or vestal temples. As these round towers are 

 neither found in Britain or the European continent, they were most probably introduced into this 

 island by the Persian Magi or Gaiirs, who in the time of Constantine the Great ran over the world, 

 carrying in their hands censors containing the holy fire; ascerting their God should destroy all other 

 Gods, which in some measure they effected by lighting fires under them, thereby burning those of 

 wood and melting those of metal. In this period the Christian religion had made considerable pro- 

 gress in the southern and western parts of Europe, but in Ireland druidic superstition remaining 

 in its original purity, whose tenets not being widely different from those of the Gaiirs, these pagan 

 philosophers found a ready assent to their doctrines ; whence Pyratheias or vestal towers became 

 universal throughout the island, in the place of the ancient Tlachgo, which we have shewn under 

 that word were mounts of stone containing the remains of their ancient heroes, and on which fires 

 were occasionally lighted from the sacred vaults at the times of sacrifice. The Clogliadh now re- 

 maining in Ireland were all erected by the Christian clergy, and are none of them older probably 

 than the beginning of the seventh century, nor none of a later date than the close of the eleventh, 

 though evidently derived from structures of a similar nature used by the pagan priests ; they were 

 however continued as belfries to the close of the fourteenth century, for which reason a belfry in 

 the Irish language is termed Clogkadh, from being originally temples of Tlacht. Ware Ant. Du- 

 frene's Gloss, torn. 3. Jurieu's critical Hist, of the Church, vol. 2." vol. iii. pp. 308 310. 



On the preceding statement it will be sufficient to observe, that the story 

 of the Gaurs, or Persian Magi, overrunning Europe in the reign of Constantine, 

 is altogether a fabrication of the author's own, and that the ecclesiastical histo- 

 rian, Jurieu, to whom he refers as his authority, states nothing from which such 

 an inference could be drawn. The passages in Jurieu's Critical History of the 

 Church, on which this mendacious statement was founded, are given by Val- 

 lancey in the fourth volume of his Collectanea [pp. 406, 407], who enjoyed a 

 triumph in exposing the dishonesty of his former literary associate. Mr. Beau- 

 ford's statements with respect to the derivation of the word Cloghad from 

 Tlachgo, of the original Round Towers having been constructed of rock stone 

 without cement, and of the ruins of several of those still remaining being of the 

 same diameter with the Round Towers now remaining, are given without any 

 authority, and are pure fallacies. And the statement as to the conversion of 

 these Towers into belfries, on the introduction of bells about the twelfth cen- 

 tury, is equally fallacious, as it is certain from the whole body of our ecclesias- 

 tical history, that bells were in use in Ireland from the period of the first intro- 

 duction of Christianity into the country, as I shall show in its proper place. 



VOL. xx. F 



